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Cabinet formation today
Three more Congress MLAs take oath
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Attack on BSP Candidate
Six killed in Kumaon mishaps
Five die in car accident
IAS officer’s PA attempts suicide
MDDA accused of harassing elderly
Programme begins on mitigation of desertification
CAU team win
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Cabinet formation today
Dehradun, March 19 Congress sources reveal that while the dissenting Congress leader and Union Minister of Agriculture and Food Processing Harish Rawat had been placated by providing Cabinet berths to his loyalists, those backing Bahuguna had also been given due representation. This apart from awarding Cabinet berths to the Independents, the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (Progressive) and the Bahujan Samaj Party whose support is crucial for the survival of the Congress government. Uttarakhand has 70 MLAs and thus can have only 12 Cabinet berths due to a constitutional cap. On expected lines, three Independents, Harish Durgpal from the Lalkuan constituency, Manti Prasad Naithani from Deoprayag and Dinesh Dhanai from Tehri, lone UKD (P) MLA Pritam Panwar from Yamunotri and BSP MLA Surendra Rakesh from the Bhagwanpur Assembly are all set to get Cabinet berths. The Congress with just 32 MLAs has mustered the support of three BSP, one UKD(P) and three Independents MLAs to reach the figure of 39 MLAs in the 70-member house. State Congress president and sitting Bajpur MLA Yashpal Arya, Haldwani MLA Indira Hridyesh, Chakrata MLA Pritam Singh, Jageshwar MLA Govind Singh Kunjwal, Kotdwar MLA Surendra Singh Negi and Ramnagar MLA Amrita Rawat, who is the wife of Congress MP Satpal Maharaj, are likely to get the Cabinet berths. Harish Rawat has ensured Cabinet berths for his supporters. Pritam Singh, Govind Singh Kunjwal, Indira Hridyesh and Surendra Singh Negi are all Harish Rawat loyalists. Vijay Bahuguna could only manage Cabinet berths for Yashpal Arya and Amrita Rawat, who have been in his camp in the battle for chief ministership. While Yashpal Arya and Surendra Rakesh are Dalits, Pritam Singh is a tribal, two women Indira Hridyesh and Amrita Rawat are getting cabinet berths. Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, Surendra Singh Negi, Mantri Prasad Naithani, Dinesh Dhanai and Amrita Rawat are all from from the Garhwal region while Govind Singh Kunjwal Indira Hridyesh are from Kumaon. Pritam Singh and Surendra Rakesh represent Dehradun and Haridwar districts, respectively. Yashpal Arya’s Bajpur constituency falls in Udham Singh Nagar district.
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Three more Congress MLAs take oath
Dehradun, March 19 Today the pro tem Speaker administered the oath of office to Indira Hriyadesh, Congress MLA (Haldwani), Ganesh Godiyal, Congress MLA (Srinagar) and Madan Singh Bisht, Congress MLA (Dwarahat). Soon after taking the oath of office, senior Congress leader Indira Hriyadesh said there was no disagreement within the party. “Harish Rawat is a senior Congress leader and issues that were creating conflict should be resolved within the party forum. If he has made demands for accommodating party workers in the organisation and the party, these should be looked into. As far as Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna is concerned, I have given my unstinted support to him and all Congress members are in agreement that the Congress Government under him should function well,” she said. After the candidature of Mahinder Singh Mahra for the Upper House was announced, it was assumed that the recalcitrant MLAs aligning with senior Congress leader Harish Rawat would now fall in line and take the oath of office but that was not to be. At least 11 MLAs did not turn up today. However, Uttarakhand Congress chief Yashpal Arya said the party had the numbers and would not face any problem in the election of the Speaker. “They will fall in line, and the rest of the MLAs would take the oath tomorrow. We have resolved all outstanding issues. The nomination for the lone Rajya Sabha seat, too, has been smooth; our candidate will win the election. We are all interested in giving good governance to the people,” he said. Significantly, while senior Congress leader Harish Rawat has managed to get his demands met, the other rebel leader former leader of the Opposition and senior Congress leader Harak Singh Rawat has not been successful. According to party sources, he has paid a price for openly foul-mouthing the Congress Central leadership and may not be included in the Bahuguna Cabinet.
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Candidates file nominations for RS
Dehradun, March 19 In a bid to placate senior Congress leader Harish Rawat and put an end to the rebellion engulfing the Uttarakhand Congress, the high command finally named Mahinder Singh Mahra, a close relative and political associate of his, as the party nominee for the lone Rajya Sabha seat. The process of nomination, which was to start at 1 pm, took three hours with rumours doing the rounds that Mahra may not file his nomination after all, as the MLAs believed to be in Harish Rawat’s camp were yet to arrive and take the oath of office. Finally, at 3 pm, Mahra along with Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna and other Congress leaders filed the nomination papers in front of Returning Officer and Principal Secretary, Vidhan Sabha, D.P Gairola. As if on a que, BJP nominees for Rajya Sabha Naresh Bansal and Anil Goyal, too, followed suit and also filed their nomination papers. “We are hopeful that our candidate will wing the Rajya Sabha seat as we have the requisite majority,” said Yashpal Arya, Uttarakhand Congress president. The Congress candidate filed three sets of papers, while the two candidates from the BJP filed four (each) sets of papers. While senior Congress leaders denied any deal brokering between the Harish Rawat camp and Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, Congress insiders say that both the leaders have decided to bury the hatchet and Rawat supporters would also be accommodated in the Cabinet or in the state Congress organisation. Meanwhile, adopting wait and watch strategy, the BJP was also contemplating sending a former Chief Minister to Rajya Sabha but when the name of Mahra figured, they decided to instead go ahead with two other names. But all along it was clear that the BJP would be fielding it’s candidate. “One of our candidates would withdrew the nomination tomorrow; we are optimistic of giving a good fight to the Congress,” said B.S Chufal, BJP Uttarakhand chief.
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Attack on BSP Candidate
Dehradun, March 19 He said Sharma was to pay him Rs 5 lakh, which he took to buy a Rs 60 lakh plot near Kandoli for former Transport Minister in Uttar Pradesh Nand Gopal Nandi. Yadav had been running after him for the past six months for the payment. A day before the incident when he went to collect the amount which Sharma had assured to give him, Sharma again retracted saying the cheque he deposited to collect the amount from the bank had bounced. The fresh trigger which instigated him to commit the crime was his denial to pay back Rs 10,000 which Yadav had taken from his friend who lived in Ghaziabad and gave to Sharma when he needed it. He levelled serious allegations against Sharma saying, “There are 16 legal cases pending against Manoj Sharma, of which four comprises non-bailable offence. He has guns without licence at his home and does not pay income tax. He has also been shown ‘absconded’ in the case under Section 307 where he fired in the air at a senior Congress leader’s house many years ago. He still has that gun with him. He possesses fake passports. He showed a property of Rs 6 crore while filing nomination papers in the state Assembly elections. Where he got all the money from.” He questioned as to why Sharma was roaming free despite being offender on many fronts. The police said Yadav had been hiding in Meerut and Saharanpur since he shot at Sharma on February 29 and was caught by them at Dharampur.
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Six killed in Kumaon mishaps
Pithoragarh, March 19 They had come to participate in a fair under way at the temple. The accidet took place when they were taking rest near the Ucholigoth
parking. The deceased have been identified as Anikat (9) and Ankit (12). The driver of the bus is absconding. The bodies have been sent to Khatima for a post-mortem
examination. In another accident, four persons were killed when the car they were travelling in had a head-on collision with a truck near Kashipur town. They were on their way to Delhi from Almora. The deceased have been identified as driver Girish Chandra Dhaudiyal, Maniti Devi, Anand Singh Dangwal and his wife Gaura Devi. All of them were residents of the Deghat area, Almora.
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Five die in car accident
Dehradun, March 19 She has prayed for the speedy recovery of those injured and peace of the soul for the deceased.
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IAS officer’s PA attempts suicide
Dehradun, March 19 shop at Araghar in the afternoon today. The shopkeeper shouted and called the neighbouring shopkeepers, after which Uniyal was taken to Doon Hospital. He sustained a minor cut in the neck and is out of danger now. Uniyal, a resident of Race Course Colony, suffering from acute depression, tried to take his life.
In his statement given to the police he said he was mentally upset because of his sister’s prolonged illness, who stayed with her family at Nehru Colony. He has two grown-up children, a boy and girl. S. Ramaswamy denied that he found Uniyal eccentric or mentally
not stable. He said; “Uniyal is a dedicated and committed employee. I got to know he was under medication for depression and had not taken medicines for the last 15 days due to
which his depression became severe.” The officer said today’s incident would not affect the career of Uniyal and he would continue to serve as he was doing before.
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MDDA accused of harassing elderly
Mussoorie, March 19 Shiksha Devi, 65, who lives in a100-year-old building that is known by the name Hazel Mayor outhouse in Dhuman Ganj near Hathpaaon, alleged that MDDA officials were harassing her by not sanctioning her site plan even after the orders given by the Commissioner, Garhwal, who is also the president of the department. Shiksha Devi said she had applied for the renovation and construction of her old residence as it was in a dilapidated condition and approached the MDDA officials to sanction the site plan. The MDDA officials instead of assisting the old woman began harassing her on some pretext every time she visited their office. In the meantime, Shiksha Devi, due to her growing family, constructed the area violating the site plan. The MDDA officials served a notice on her to demolish the building instead of the area constructed in violation of the plan. Shiksha Devi had appealed against the notice in the commissioner’s office on November 10, 2010, who surveyed the portion constructed by the owner and imposed a fine and directed the MDDA officials to resolve the matter according to the laws. The MDDA officials, despite the Commissioner’s order, did not pass her plan and kept harassing her. Shiksha Devi’s son Dinesh alleged that they were being harassed as they did not pay any graft for sanctioning their site plan. The MDDA officials refused to comment on the case as it was still pending in the SDM court.
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Programme begins on mitigation of desertification
Dehradun, March 19 He added the two regions today were now striving for a common goal of development. Tolia said desertification too was a common challenge that had to be vigorously met by India and Africa. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests in Uttarakhand Dr RBS Rawat spoke about climate change. He added climate change was affecting the developing countries the most and India was leading the challenge of the developing countries against the developed world. Earlier, Principal of the Central Academy for State Forest Services, Dehradun, Ashish Rawat elaborated on the training programme being held under the aegis of the Indo-Africa Forum. He said 30 delegates from 15 African countries were participating in the programme. “This training programme is a follow up of the Indo-Africa Heads of States Summit held in Delhi in 2008, and in Addis Ababa in 2011. It is being held at the behest of the Indian External Affairs Ministry which has committed $ 700 million to establish new institutions and launch training programmes in consultation with the African Union," he said. The delegates attending the programme include forest officers, academicians and scientists from African countries like Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo DRC, Ethiopia, Guinea, Lesotho, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Malawi and Namibia.
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Cultural event marks annual festival celebrations
Haridwar, March 19 They held the audience spellbound with their Garhwali and Kumaoni folk songs and dances. The event was organised by the student’s welfare council. Prerna Kainthola, council president, coordinated the programme. The function was inaugurated by college Trustees, Mahant Ramanand Puriji Maharaj and Mahant Bilkeshwar Maharaj in the presence of Principal Avneet Kumar Ghildiyal. Mahant Ramanand Puriji Maharaj and the Principal exhorted the students to lead a disciplined life. Professors, Dr SK Batra and RK Maheswari, thanked all for their cooperation in making the week-long celebrations a success.
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CAU team win
Dehradun, March 19 Ritesh of the CAU team took 5 wickets. The CAU easily managed the target score ensuring 3-wicket win for itself. Ashutosh scored unbeaten 44 runs. Umangi of the Khalsa Cricket team took 4 wickets in his 6 over spell.
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